question of the day: Which movies are actually better than the books they’re based on?

Even the most ardent movie snobs tend to find it easy to say, “Oh, the book is always better than the movie.” But that’s not quite true. It’s rare, but it does happen: The movie is better than the book.

There’s so few of them, though, that we could probably compile a comprehensive list of them right here. So let’s do it.

Which movies are actually better than the books they’re based on?

My pick: A Simple Plan, Sam Raimi’s adaptation of the novel by Scott Smith [Amazon U.S.] [Amazon U.K.]. The novel is great, but Smith, who wrote the screenplay, too, found ways to make his story even more pointed as he boiled it down for the screen.